Chapter Thirty One

My hand automatically grasped tight onto the pistol. The order was clear. Shoot her. The drug's effects were taking place. The paths of choices didn't lay out in front of me like outwardly dividing branches, but instead one single straight line - obey.

I turned the safety off.

Jessica didn't panic, instead she whispered in my ears, "Please trust me. "

I was divided into two parts, one was to just listen and shoot, but the other was hesitant and wanted to hear Jessica out.

Jessica suddenly changed her tone into that same dictating voice Roger used. "Lower the gun."

The core formulae inside that drug was about following pure instincts, except my sense of instinctual judgement was weakened. I followed exactly the order of whomever I could trust, and Roger, before giving out the commands, set himself as the holy godly figure in my realm. While other victims if mine were crying help and begging me to stop, they did not succeed because I saw them as hostile.

But here, Jessica, was a different case.

As I was with her, I slowly regained my consciousness, and she definitely could save me from all these disorder. I knew I could trust an angel like her.

Automatically, instinctually, I put the gun down.

Roger turned and faced the medic. "How could this happen!" His face concealed the raging volcano inside his body, but his voice sold him off.

Then he turned back to me. "I said. Shoot. Her. Do NOT listen to her words."

My mind was torn between the two commands. Never had there been exactly two contradictory orders. I felt a compelling obligation to follow Roger's order, yet there was a tempting desire for me to choose Jessica's words. My logical judgement was reduced to nothing, so I could only trust my instincts, like an animal.

Jessica copied Roger's script almost exactly. "I said. Don't. Shoot. Only listen to my words."

As Jessica said those words, she was sweating a little bit, and her muscle tensed. It was a gamble. If lost, then both of us would die.

Jessica then continued, "Be my bodyguard. Escort me out."

Two armed soldiers immediately lunged towards Jessica, but I flashed in front of her and knocked the first man off balance.

"Freeze." This was Roger.

I immediately stopped my counterattack and let the second soldier tackle me onto the ground. He was about to punch me on the face, but Roger unleashed a telekinetic wall in between. I wasn't surprised.

My body turned completely into a puppet, and the puppeteers were pulling the strings randomly. My actions were often stopped halfway. I could only stand there helplessly as the control of my body was ripped away from me.

I followed Roger because of respect and fear. I followed Jessica because of love.

Roger lifted Jessica into the sky with his telekinetic force. Her words of help we're cut of in between as an invisible thick layer of air clumped themselves over her mouth. She could only look at me with fear and terror.

No. It wasn't right. I needed to do something. But I was ordered to freeze.

The thoughts of doing something to help Jessica died out as her voice diminished. I should just follow the order. It would be the easiest thing to do.

But... But Jessica was an exception. She was someone. She was a person. I saw my history with her.

No. It wasn't right to just let her die. I must not let this happen.

I was about to jump towards her when Roger yelled again, "Stop right there!"

I stopped. I followed the order. This order took up all the room in my head, and I couldn't process any other ideas.

Roger then lifted the gun. "You see, I could just kill her easily. But no. You must be the one to do this, and you must do it willingly." Then he gave out the final command, "Shoot her!"

My hand raised the gun. The figure standing in front of me was no longer a human with her own character and history, but just a moving target.

Then the whole world turned black. Everything. I can't see anything inside the Reader. I can't read my thoughts from that memory. I lose the feeling of Skye's connection. But I couldn't break out of this darkness.

What is going on?